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Friday, 26 February 2010
Do you know your ABC?


Click for a closeup view

Alphabets à... is almost finished. In fact, if I had left the minature knitting alone, I would probably have finished it by now! The fabric is a pale ivory 48ct Gander linen although it it looks darker. I should finish this over the weekend and I have already been looking for a chart for a new start. Shall I stitch up the models for the two new charts; sort out an unfinished piece or just choose something completely new? Decisions, decisions...

The rain has stopped although it's very windy this morning. A little sunshine would not go amiss.

I heard from a friend who is celebrating her birthday today on a Carribean cruise. The ship is docked at St Lucia and she is enjoying a champagne breakfast before disembarking for a cataraman trip around the pitons . Happy birthday Sue - enjoy your trip!

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 12:16 | Permalink | 10 comments Photobucket
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Kelmscott Designs



Last month I received a surprise package in the mail from Paula of Kelmscott Designs. Inside I discovered a mother of pearl Strawberry Thread Keeper, a Hummingbird Needle Minder, mother of pearl Heart Buckles and Daisy Thread rings plus 2 notepads. All these are new releases so I promised Paula I would not post a picture until after the Nashville Market but I guess it's ok to post now. Thank you Paula for your most generous gift. Check out Paula's website for a list of shops that carry these beautiful pieces plus much much more.

There are two new iStitch charts in the pipeline - Sew Quaker and Sew Peacock. I hope to stitch up these model shortly but in the meantime please visit the Charts blog *here* or click on the CHARTS button on the sidebar.

My miniature knitting is growing slowly; Alphabets à... is almost finished. I enjoying working on both of these projects.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 12:40 | Permalink | 6 comments Photobucket
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Pink Sapphires?




Photos by Valie (and blatantly stolen by me)


To me sapphires are blue; to Valie they are pink! Here is Valie's wonderful version of Sew Sapphire stitched on 40ct linen hand-dyed linen from Bénédicte with House of Embroidery overdyed cotton threads 'Papaver' and 'Tulip'. She did, however, include a splash of blue! I am wondering how the lady will finally finish this beautiful piece of stitching.

Sew Sapphire chart available *here* or click the CHARTS button on the sidebar.



A quick snap of my miniature knitting with a US25c coin for scale. It's actually easier to do than I thought it would be and, so far, I have only had a little trouble with pain and stiffness in my right index finger otherwise my hands have been fine. I am dreaming of stripey socks!



For the past week or so we have had rain - not just a shower or two - but incessant rain from morning til night (and probably overnight too). I am sure I am developing skin between my toes - is this a sign of more rain? I took this picture a couple of weeks back - a tiny primrose flower makes an early appearance so maybe Spring is on it's way? Now if only I could see a little sunshine...

I stitched some more on Alphabets à ... I love it!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 09:02 | Permalink | 10 comments Photobucket
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Sew Blue pinkeep




Wendy Jo sent me a picture of her Sew Blue pinkeep that she stitched for Nancy (no blog) for the Friends Through Threads group. This was Wendy Jo's first attempt at stitching on 40ct linen (although you would never guess) with GAST Dungarees. Beautifully stitched and finished Wendy Jo - thank you for allowing me to post this picture. Sew Blue chart is still available for free *here* with the purchase of any chart.

I made a start on my miniature knitting last night and, after two false starts (the pattern was not as clear as it might be), I have knitted 3 'lots' of the 4 pattern row. Not many I know but this really is teeny; I will post a photo shortly. I have also been stitching on Alphabets à ... and have only the large letter C to go and it will be finished. I will be sad to finish this one as I am really enjoying it so I will now look for something in the same ilk for my next piece.

It's raining, yet again. I am so ready for some sunshine!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 17:00 | Permalink | 5 comments Photobucket
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Sew Sapphire



An unusual alphabet and pretty motifs in vibrant sapphire blue - Sew Sapphire. It is stitched 1*2 on 40ct white Wichelt linen with HDF Sapphire silk thread and hemstitched with white DMC. This chart is now available *here* or click on the CHARTS button on the sidebar.

I am hoping to finish the hemstitch tutorial shortly - photography is not my strong point and I need to re-take some of the photos. Please bear with me.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 11:44 | Permalink | 16 comments Photobucket
Friday, 19 February 2010
Scissors



My dear friend Valie went to the Aiguile en Fête in Paris last weekend where she not only shopped for herself but for me too! These beautiful scissors she acquired for me from Monsieur Roulot of Nogent who is indeed a fine craftsman for these scissors are absolutely stunning. Thank you Valie. I hope to be meeting with M Roulot in the not too distant future when I am sure another pair of his excellent scissors will become mine!

For those of you waiting for the release of Sew Sapphire, please bear with me. I promise it will not be too long but yesterday Justin and the children came to visit so I was unable to finish the hem-stitching. This will be done this evening with, weather permitting, a photoshoot tomorrow. My grand-daughter Megan came with her part-stitched Sew In Love to show me; once she has finished it I will post a picture. She also tried her hand at 'designing' a new chart and I will be showing this off at a later stage.

Thanks for visiting - have a lovely weekend
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 15:51 | Permalink | 16 comments Photobucket
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Giveaway



Sunny of Just Take One Stitch at a Time is having a giveaway of a Dimensions kit named Cat and Flowers to promote visitors to her exchange blog *here*. Sunny has been trying to get stitchers to sign up for her exchange blog but, despite it being open for 3 months, she has not yet had any takers so, if you are interested in joining, go take a look. Please also advertise this giveaway on your own blog and let's see if we can give Sunny the support she needs to get this new exchange blog up and running. Best of luck Sunny!

The model for Sew Sapphire is finished except for the hemstitching which is prepared and just needs those final stitches to go in. I had enough of the HDF thread with a 10" length left over - phew it was a close call! Once the hemstitching is done - a quick press and a photoshoot and the chart will be ready for release so come back soon to see if you like my latest creation!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 23:14 | Permalink | 2 comments Photobucket
Miniature knitting



The postman delivered the miniature knitting kit that I ordered a few days ago from Buttercup Miniatures. You would not believe how tiny these needles are! They are approximately 6" in length with cute little beads at the top and the 1 ply yarn is very delicate - almost like a silk thread. I have not tried miniature knitting before so I have no idea how I will get on with it. I have a pattern for knitting miniature Quaker Pin Balls so I will probably give these a go at some point but I will start with knitting up the Victorian Coverlet as per the kit. Now that my hands are relatively pain free, I have decided to try both knitting and crocheting again; I hope I can knit without any problems as I really want to try out the sock pattern that Staci sent to me - thank you Staci! I also ordered a tiny 0.4mm crochet hook to try out a few miniature snowflakes with 80 Dentelles and maybe I am being a bit ambitious but we shall see.

I worked on my latest model last night and realised there was an error on the centre motif as the bottom did not finish where it should. I checked and re-checked the motif stitch by stitch against the chart and then it hit me - there was an error on the left border on the chart although I hadn't stitched the error! Back to the computer to rectify the chart and all is now well. Only 3 small motifs and the outside border on the right hand side, plus the hem-stitching to go so this should be ready by the weekend. I am hoping that the thread will last out but, if not, there may be a colour accent or two!

Oh yes - the sun is out today! I can cope with the cold so long as it's bright and sunny. Spring is in the air and I feel good!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

 
Photobucket posted by Carol R at 10:44 | Permalink | 11 comments Photobucket
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Fun in the snow!



Although the snow has all but disappeared from here, in Dover, 9 miles down the coast from us, they still have plenty so Justin and AnnMarie took the girls sledging last weekend. I'm not sure if Georgia is screaming with delight or fear!




I think Justin needs a slightly larger sledge but don't tell him I said so! As I have said before, we rarely get so much snow in our little corner of the UK so they are making as much of it as they can as it may be years before we get any more.

I am stitching the model for my newest chart and am a little worried that I will not have sufficient thread. It's an HDF silk thread called Sapphire that was gifted to me in a blog giveaway and which no longer appears on Vikki's website. I assume it was one of her earlier colours so I therefore have both fingers and toes crossed that I will have enough thread to finish.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

 
Photobucket posted by Carol R at 00:36 | Permalink | 5 comments Photobucket
Monday, 15 February 2010
Sew in Love by Nancy




Nancy of Lovely in Chocolate sent me a picture of her version of Sew In Love which she finished in time for Valentine's Day. Stitched on an unknown linen with Carrie's Creation Threads (which threads I have yet to try) in Ruby, Nancy is planning on framing it and displaying it all year. Sew In Love is one of my favourite iStitch charts - red stitching with plenty of hearts including an 'open heart' which you may or may not have noticed appears on all my charts except for the first one, Sew Red! Thank you Nancy for allowing me to post your beautiful interpretation of Sew In Love.

I am still working on the model for the new chart and also on the hem-stitch tutorial so please bear with me.

The snow from last week has thawed but it's still extremely cold so I would not be too surprised if we get another snowfall sometime this week. I am staying home in the warm - my daughter gave me her cold last week so I am full of snuffles and sneezes!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 08:29 | Permalink | 11 comments Photobucket
Friday, 12 February 2010
Elisa's Sew Pink




Earlier this week, Elisa sent me pictures of her lovely version of Sew Pink. She chose to stitch on a 28ct 'Count on Me' evenweave fabric called Rose with a Dinky Dyes silk thread 'Tinkerbell'. Elisa then framed this with a very pretty fabric and ribbon trimmed mount/border. What a great idea - thank you for sharing this with us Elisa! I really love to see how others interpret my charts so if you have a stitch/finish you would like to share I would love to post them on my blog. My email address can be found on my profile.

No stitching pictures of my own to share today. I was out for most of yesterday and, after taking a hot bath, I had a really early night. I think that 'too many' late nights had finally caught up with me as I climbed into bed just after 10pm and slept until gone 9am!

The snow is thawing and the cold north-easterly wind has subsided at last so I am hoping that Spring is round the corner ... well I can but hope!

Thanks for visiting - have a good weekend
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 14:54 | Permalink | 7 comments Photobucket
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Emblem of Love RR



I received Edgar's Emblem of Love RR in Tuesday's post and got to work on it straight away and finished my section last night. It was difficult to choose which section to stitch as usually I go for one adjoining an already stitched section but, as I had already stitched the section adjoining Suzanne's choice and the one stitched by Deb, I decided to count across from Suzanne's stitching and did the upper left hand corner. I much prefer to stitch a different section on each one and, hopefully, I can continue to do this.




A closeup picture shows in more detail the section I picked. I had to remove one small motif to make space for my initials.




This was the scene yesterday morning as snow started to fall heavily. It came down thick and fast and started to lay almost immediately.




I cannot believe how quickly it fell. This morning I awoke, once again, to a winter wonderland so I think it must have snowed all night. It's extremely cold and is still snowing on and off. My son called me to say it took him 4½ hours to get home from work last night which journey normally takes him 15/20 minutes! This morning he is snowed in and is working from home. We are invited to a birthday/dinner party tomorrow evening so I guess Ugg boots and thermals will be the dress code!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 11:47 | Permalink | 17 comments Photobucket
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Is it Spring in France?



Valie has sent me a picture of her version of Sew Spring. It is stitched with an AVAS green silk thread, with some Atalie cotton floss and a sprinkling of HDF silk threads. I love her little grey doves, her brightly coloured butterfly and the little brown rabbit. My friend across the channel has such a way with colour! Thank you Valie for allowing me to post this picture. Sew Spring chart is available *here* or click on the CHARTS button on the sidebar.

I have placed a few more stitches in Alphabets à ... the patterns under the B are now done so today I will finish the top alphabet. This one is stitching up very quickly and I am enjoying it very much.

It's extremely cold here today with snow forecast for the next couple of days. I went shopping today to stock up for a cold spell.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 14:52 | Permalink | 8 comments Photobucket
Monday, 8 February 2010
Alphabets à ... update


Click on picture for a close-up view

I am really enjoying stitching Alphabets à ... it's so tiny and delicate despite being stitched 2*2 on the 48ct Gander linen with the Soie Surfine thread - the side measurement is slightly under 7". There are two sets of 'patterns' to be stitched under the B and the rest of the top alphabet before I can move on to C. I have no idea why there is no x,y,z in the lower left corner!

I have chosen both fabric and thread for the new iStitch design although, of course, I may yet change my mind once I start stitching. I am also working on the hem-stitch tutorial which is proving difficult as I just cannot get good clear pictures of the steps involved. Please be patient - it is on it's way!

I had planned a shopping trip to day but, once again, it's raining heavily so I'll stitch instead.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 11:18 | Permalink | 15 comments Photobucket
Friday, 5 February 2010
Staci's Sew Patchwork



Here is Sew Patchwork by the lovely Staci of Snippets and Stash. Such a pretty version and I can't wait to see what she has planned for her final finish.




It is stitched on 28ct 'staci-dyed' evenweave with DMC 115 which is one of my favourite DMC variagated threads.




Sew Patchwork chart is available *here* or click on the CHARTS button on the sidebar.

No stitching for me since my last post as I have been busy with a new iStitch design. Would you like a clue? OK ... it will be hem-stitched, it has an alphabet, some motifs and ... oh yes ... a border. It also has a name ... to be revealed shortly!

Thanks for visiting - have a good weekend
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 13:57 | Permalink | 10 comments Photobucket
Thursday, 4 February 2010
As easy as ABC!


Click on the picture for a close-up view

As promised yesterday here is Bleu de Soie's 'Alphabet à ...' I am having so much fun stitching this one! This picture was taken yesterday and I have stitched more since then. The back-stitched stems to the tiny flowers inside B and both the flowers and back-stitching in A are now completed but, as it's much too dark to take a new photo today, this one will have to do. The 7" hoop shown in the picture is a vintage wood Duchess Felt Cushion Hoop that I won on ebay. There is no screw to tighten it but the inside hoop is lined with felt to hold the fabric.



A detailed picture shows the 'pattern' row - I love those little carnations in the top row! I am stitching 2*2 with Soie Surfine 109 on a 48ct pale creme Gander linen so you can imagine how delicate this is.


In the past couple of days, I also stitched Jinglebell Reinder from Daffycat Designs, my January ornament for the 2010 Christmas Challenge. A few days late but 'better late than never'. I accept that it's not 'finished' but I prefer to stitch a few and then have one 'finish' day. Ken asked if this was a 'no idea' - I looked at him blankly - he said 'no eye deer' - mmmnn - I sometimes wonder how his mind works!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 09:49 | Permalink | 16 comments Photobucket
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
iStitch finishes



Firstly, a beautifully stitched Sew Red from Françoise from Belgium who tells me she stitched this with a silk floss of tentaculum, colour Nikki on a Belgian linen 13pt, blanc cassé. Isn't the thread a gorgeous colour? I am wondering how Françoise is going to finish this. Talking of gorgeous, check out those 'to die for' scissors which are handmade by an old French craftsman. I know I am on a 'stitch from stash' year but surely scissors don't count and I think that I really N-E-E-D a pair of these scissors. Thank you for sharing with us Françoise.




Secondly, a really pretty version of a Sew In Love pillow stitched and finished by Barb. Thank you too Barb for sharing your stitching with us.

Both charts, Sew Red and Sew In Love are available on my charts blog *here* or click on the CHARTS button on the sidebar. Sew Red is available free with the purchase of any chart. Sew In Love would make an ideal gift for Valentines Day which is fast approaching but, with instant download of the chart, you still have plenty of time to stitch this for your loved one!



Last, but certainly not least, Anita of Little Stitches sent me three spools of Sulky thread as a belated Christmas gift in three pretty shades, from L-R, Caramel Apple, Forever Green and Antique Christmas in 30wt which is ideal for stitching 1*2 on a high count fabric or 1*1 on 32ct fabric. I can't wait to give these threads a try. Thank you Anita - your thoughtful gift is much appreciated.

I am still stitching on Alphabets à... and I am enjoying it immensely. It must be time to show you a picture so I will take one later today so come back tomorrow to see my progress.

Thank for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 09:07 | Permalink | 8 comments Photobucket
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Sew Red from Caracas




I received an email from Béa in Caracas with these two photos of her finish of Sew Red. Stitched on Edinburgh Summer Khaki using DMC 926, 611 and 3032, Bea finished her beautiful version as a trinket tray. A stunning finish Béa - thank you for sharing!

Sew Red chart is still available (free with a purchase of any chart) from my charts blog *here* (or use the CHARTS button on the sidebar).




I have been very lapse in showing my TUSAL jar on a monthly basis but here is my 2009 jar in its full glory! I have a smaller jar which I use for the month and then transfer the snippets of threads over to this special jar (gifted to me by Valie on my trip to France last year) on the last day of the month. If you peek inside you can see strands of Raisin Wine used for Beatrix, some threads from my Christmas ornies and a bright red perle cotton that I used for stringing up the Christmas cards. Now this jar has to be emptied to allow for January's snips.

I have been working on charting up some new iStitch designs and stitching 'Alphabets à ...' and will show a photo later. I have also been updating the 2010 Christmas Challenge blog. This blog is now open for new members so if you are interested in joining, please email me (my email address is on my profile) with your name and blog link if you have one. The aim of this blog is to encourage to stitch and finish at least one Christmas ornament per month.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Photobucket posted by Carol R at 09:06 | Permalink | 15 comments Photobucket
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